For the 30+ years
that I’ve been coaching goaltenders, I have subscribed to teaching
the “Short Side Theory of the Angles”. The nugget that started me on
this theory was something from an old Ken Dryden (Hall of Fame
goalie for the Montreal Canadiens for you youngsters) video where he
mentioned a tip for finding the correct place to be when the puck is
on a wide angle. >From there I just expanded the concept through
trial and error, observations and chats with other goalie coaches. I
think this is a common sense approach, but it may not work for
everyone.

Why Protect the Short Side? The reason I
teach protecting the short side first is because shooters are lazy
and want to score with less work. Going across the goalie’s body to
the far side of the net requires effort so the short side is the
first place the shooter looks. It’s also a lot easier to cover the
short side and then have to move in the direction of a far side shot
then to get caught moving to the long side and have to come back
against the grain. Another key reason for protecting the short side
is that it makes YOUR life easier. If you know the short side is
closed off, you know the shooter can only score 5 Hole or long side.
It narrows the choices of the shooter.

Are You Sure you
are Lined Up Correctly on a Wide Angle Shot? I see youth, high
school and college goalies struggle with the concept of being all
the way over on the short side angle. Often when a goalie pushes off
with the post-side foot they wind up moving more toward the center
angle than the wide angle. If the approaching wide angle shooter is
on the forehand, he or she will lean their body to the middle angle
to get the goalie to lean with them so the short side opens up even
more. A rule of thumb for me is to make sure your back shoulder or
back foot is lined up with a puck that is between the face-off dot
and the wide boards. This allows you to cover the short side
completely with only a few extra inches of the long-side angle
exposed. Once the puck (not the shooter’s body) crosses your
mid-point towards the center angle, you then center your body on the
puck like you normally would. Lining up your back foot or back
shoulder on wide angles creates a visual delay on what the shooter
sees on the short side and should convince them to move across your
body for a better angle.

Stepping to the
Wide Angle at the Right Time: How and when you challenge an
approaching wide angle puck carrier plays a big role into what the
shooter will decide to do with the puck. If a player is approaching
the blue line or taking their first step off the side wall, that is
when you need to step out to the top of the crease or just beyond it
to establish your angle. When the shooter approaches your blueline
or takes the first step off the side wall, that is when they peek at
you to see what you are doing. If you have done a quick step and set
(without immediately retreating deep into the crease), it forces the
shooter to think. If you never challenge them or if you were way out
of the crease before they peeked at you and you are now furiously
retreating to the crease, you are not a threat to the shooter.

How do you step
out? Well, if there is no threat of an immediate shot because the
shooter is still approaching the blueline or is taking their first
step of the side wall, use your back foot to push off and stop with
in an explosive half-snowplow. This will keep your post-side leg
straight to the wide angle and keep you from drifting to the middle
angle. If a play happens quickly in the near circle, you would use
your post-side foot to push off with since that will be your plant
foot if you have to quickly move to the middle with the shooter. If
you use the post foot, make sure you go to the wide angle and not
towards the center angle!

Midpoint Rule: As
I mentioned earlier, you need to try not to move laterally with a
player attacking from a wide angle until the puck (not the body)
crosses the midpoint of your body. Once the puck passes your jersey
logo, you can move with the puck because the short side is not
readily available to the shooter any more.